The Simon Spillett Quartet

About

An evening with award-winning sax player

A musician who has worn many hats in jazz over his twenty five year career. The Simon Spillett Quartet is at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts on Friday 23 May at 8pm. Tickets are £17.50.

Simon Spillett is a multi-award winning instrumentalist (BBC Jazz Awards, British Jazz Awards, Jazz Journal’s Album of The Year). He is also a quartet and big band leader, recording artist, author, historian, record producer, archivist, magazine columnist and latterly blogger.

For all these varied skills he identifies most strongly as a powerfully swinging, straight ahead tenor saxophonist. He is capable of taking the audiences who hear him on a roller coaster ride encompassing everything from energetic bebop to heartfelt balladry. It’s in this guise that he’s become a solid fixture on the UK jazz landscape. He regularly plays at sold out gigs at major festivals and the world famous Ronnie Scott’s.

Simon is a charismatic performer, gifted with a dry observational wit. He’s never lost sight of the fact that jazz is entertainment as much as self-expression. Whether playing, writing or articulating holding forth on his favourite subject UK jazz history – he’s an infectious passionate communicator.

Simon is joined by Alex Hutton on piano, an established pianist on the London Jazz scene. Alex has worked with most of the leading figures, such as Jim Mullen and Pete King and won the appraisal of the late Ronnie Scott.

On bass is award-winning jazz bassist and composer Alec Dankworth. In addition to leading several groups of his own, Alec has worked with an amazing list of artists. He is known for his energetic presence, versatility of style and some of the most imaginative bass solos around!

Clark Tracey is on drums. Clark grew up in a jazz environment as the son of Stan Tracey OBE, CBE and Jackie Tracey, a former head of A&R and jazz club owner. He has also appeared on TV and radio all over the world and performed on movie soundtracks including Alfie starring Jude Law.